Graduate Studies | Texas Christian University

Welcome to the graduate web page of the TCU English Department. Offering the M.A. and Ph.D. in English, TCU provides students with a tradition of excellence in graduate studies that combines intellectual development with practical training and professional mentoring.

Our faculty is intellectually diverse and professionally active. Recent and forthcoming faculty books reflect the range of research interests in the department: Richard Enos, The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo (Baylor, 2008); Theresa Gaul, To Marry an Indian (North Carolina, 2005); Ann George, Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (South Carolina, 2007); Daniel Gil, Before Intimacy (Minnesota, 2006); Charlotte Hogg, From the Garden Club (Nebraska, 2006) and Rural Literacies (SIU, 2007) ; Linda Hughes, Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters (Ohio, 2005); Brad Lucas, Radicals, Rhetoric, and the War (Palgrave, 2006); Joddy Murray, Non-Discursive Rhetoric (SUNY, forthcoming); Karen Steele, Women, Press, and Politics During the Irish Revival (Syracuse, 2007); David Vanderwerken, Faulkner’s Literary Children (Peter Lang, 1997); and Daniel E. Williams, Liberty's Captives (Georgia, 2006).

Because we admit only 10-12 students per year, we are able to give students individual attention throughout their degree program. The program integrates work in literature and rhetoric/composition to ensure that all students, regardless of their area of specialization, will have the training and skills to be competitive for good jobs every year. Graduate fellowships and stipends for 2007-2008 are $15,000; we limit teaching by graduate fellows to one course per semester to ensure that students can focus on their academic work.

Beyond formal coursework, the TCU English program offers students a range of research, teaching, and publishing opportunities. Students who serve as editorial assistants and managing editors for the department’s two national journals, Composition Studies and descant, gain valuable publishing and editing experience. In addition, the department also publishes Reed: The Newsletter and eleven40seven, an Undergraduate Creative Writing journal. Students may also have opportunities to work in the university’s Center for Writing and in new state of the art computer writing classrooms. Graduate students have also been able to bring their professional skills to the larger community by forming partnerships between writing classes and local non-profit organizations.

These opportunities have translated into both positive experiences within the program for our students and significant professional achievements. Placement rates for our students consistently outpace national averages: in recent years, nearly 100% of our students received tenure track offers at 4-year universities and colleges. These include positions at such schools as:

We are pleased that a former student was recently named a Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professor of the Year. Former and current students regularly publish articles, books, and collections that contribute to the development of English studies as a field.In the pages that follow, you will find information about the admissions process, graduate fellowships and financial aid, typical course offerings, descriptions of the program and curriculum, and graduate faculty profiles. If you have additional questions that we can answer, please contact us.